Uploaded December 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
What can minerals tell us about the evolution of our planet?
The Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory (EPL) invites you to join astrobiologist, mineralogist, and author Dr. Robert M. Hazen, for a special presentation entitled, “Minerals: Earth’s Ultimate Time Capsules.” The free public lecture will take place at 6:30 PM EST on December 8, 2022.
Earlier this year, a team of Carnegie scientists led by Hazen published a 15-year study detailing the origins and diversity of every known mineral on Earth. This revolutionary body of work is set to reconstruct the history of life on our planet, guide the search for new minerals and ore deposits, predict possible characteristics of future life, and aid the search for habitable exoplanets and extraterrestrial life.
During the talk, you’ll learn how Hazen and his team combine the fields of "mineral evolution" and "mineral informatics" to uncover the secret 4.5-billion-year saga of our planet. Using mineralogy as a lens, Hazen will take guests back in time through many of Earth’s dramatic transformations, driven by physical, chemical, and—based on a growing body of evidence—biological processes.
This talk is a part of EPL’s continuing Neighborhood Lecture Series aimed at connecting the local Washington, D.C. community of science enthusiasts with the work being done at EPL’s campus. The presentation will begin at 6:30 PM in the Greenewalt Auditorium of the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Broad Branch Road Campus in NW, Washington, DC. Doors open at 6:00 PM.
About the speaker:
Robert M. Hazen uses newly developed data-science techniques to explore the boundaries of the mineralogical sciences, from mineral physics to biomineralization to mineral evolution. His research, incorporated into more than 400 publications and 25 books, includes high-pressure and temperature crystallography, equations of state and mineral physics, mineral surface chemistry, the roles of minerals in prebiotic chemistry, and the mineralogical co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere.
In tandem with this expansive Carnegie work, he is also the Clarence Robinson Professor of Earth Sciences, Emeritus, at George Mason University.
What can minerals tell us about the evolution of our planet?
The Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory (EPL) invites you to join astrobiologist, mineralogist, and author Dr. Robert M. Hazen, for a special presentation entitled, “Minerals: Earth’s Ultimate Time Capsules.” The free public lecture will take place at 6:30 PM EST on December 8, 2022.
Earlier this year, a team of Carnegie scientists led by Hazen published a 15-year study detailing the origins and diversity of every known mineral on Earth. This revolutionary body of work is set to reconstruct the history of life on our planet, guide the search for new minerals and ore deposits, predict possible characteristics of future life, and aid the search for habitable exoplanets and extraterrestrial life.
During the talk, you’ll learn how Hazen and his team combine the fields of "mineral evolution" and "mineral informatics" to uncover the secret 4.5-billion-year saga of our planet. Using mineralogy as a lens, Hazen will take guests back in time through many of Earth’s dramatic transformations, driven by physical, chemical, and—based on a growing body of evidence—biological processes.
This talk is a part of EPL’s continuing Neighborhood Lecture Series aimed at connecting the local Washington, D.C. community of science enthusiasts with the work being done at EPL’s campus. The presentation will begin at 6:30 PM in the Greenewalt Auditorium of the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Broad Branch Road Campus in NW, Washington, DC. Doors open at 6:00 PM.
About the speaker:
Robert M. Hazen uses newly developed data-science techniques to explore the boundaries of the mineralogical sciences, from mineral physics to biomineralization to mineral evolution. His research, incorporated into more than 400 publications and 25 books, includes high-pressure and temperature crystallography, equations of state and mineral physics, mineral surface chemistry, the roles of minerals in prebiotic chemistry, and the mineralogical co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere.
In tandem with this expansive Carnegie work, he is also the Clarence Robinson Professor of Earth Sciences, Emeritus, at George Mason University.
